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How-To Geek

GEEK TRIVIA

The Last Version of Windows To Use FAT As The Default File System Was?

Windows XP

Windows ME

Windows Vista

Windows 95

Answer: Windows ME

The last version of Windows to use the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system as the default file system of its primary disk was Windows ME.

With the introduction of Windows XP, the default file system used by Windows became New Technology File System (NTFS), which has remained the default Windows file system since.

Bonus Trivia: Although Windows XP was the first consumer-oriented release of Windows to default to to the NTFS file system, Windows NT had NTFS support throughout the 1990s and Windows 2000 Professional, released a year before XP supported (but did not default to) NTFS.

WinME got a bum rap. I did two things with every install and it always ran fine (for me) - disable 'System Restore' and set 'Automatic Updates' to 'Notify Only'. Once I started doing that, no more (major) issues. Many folk did and still do disagree, but haters gonna hate.

I find more updated than just the UI. Things like the UAC was more finely tunable (rather than just on or off). The gadgets were annoying, but they are still an option in Win7. It also runs smoother than Vista on the same hardware, in my experience.

There are a lot more, but in my experience, it shows there was a lot more between Vista and 7 than just a UI change.

I wouldn't say I disagree, per se. I disagree with MY situation using FAT, but not yours. I fully understand why somebody would choose FAT over NTFS for personal systems. My major beef with a personal system is the file size limitation (I frequently deal with 8+GB files).

The single biggest irritation in Windows 7 and Vista is the UAC (User Account Control) system, especially for people that do a lot of tweaking. When you are trying to make configuration changes, it seems like every couple of seconds you are hitting another UAC prompt. Sure, it’s more secure… but what options do we have to make it less annoying?

Wrong. The last OS to use FAT (aka FAT16) was Windows 95. Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, 98SE, and ME used FAT32 by default on drives larger than 512MB, and it is still in use on a majority of USB drives, SD cards, and other removable media.

Well Jesus H. Christ... if you want to pick nits to that anal extreme, FAT16 isn't FAT by your logic. The original FAT was 8 bit, developed in the 1970's. FAT16 didn't come to be until around 1983 or 84.

Well, in that case, there's also FAT12, used on floppy disks, and Microsoft's new EXFAT, used as a drop-in replacement for FAT32. 8-bit FAT precedes MS-DOS by a few years, and MS-DOS 1.0 used FAT12; MS-DOS 3.3 used FAT12B.